What's next for David Camm?

Oct. 24, 2013

David Camm walks toward his verdict hearing at the Boone County Courthouse Thursday in Lebanon, Ind. The former state trooper was found not guilty of killing his wife Kim Camm, daughter Jill and son Bradley in 2000. Camm's first two convictions were overturned upon appeal; he has spent 13 years in prison. / By Matt Stone/The Courier-Journal

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LEBANON, IND. — David Camm’s criminal case has ended, but he still faces other legal challenges aimed at preventing him from recovering an estimated $625,000 in life insurance and 401K funds stemming from his family’s deaths.

Any husband is normally the beneficiary of his wife and children’s estates if they die before he does. But Frank and Janice Renn, parents of his wife Kim Camm, have filed two lawsuits that are now pending in Floyd Circuit Court and U.S. District Court challenging Camm as the beneficiary, asserting that he isn’t entitled to the benefits because he was responsible for the murders.

His acquittal casts doubt on what’s ahead, said Renn attorney Nick Stein of New Albany. “If there’s an acquittal, it’s a free-for-all again,” Stein said a few days before the verdict.

The Renns still intend to fight to show that Camm was responsible for the deaths, Stein said. “We’re going all the way to the wall. We’re not giving this money to David.”

David Mosley, Camm’s lawyer, said he intends to let Stein make the next move. “The last thing on his (Camm’s) mind or ours should be money,” he said.

Camm’s relatives and his lawyers said that they’re focused on helping Camm rebuild his life. He didn’t get to attend the funerals of his wife and children. Camm was “never given the opportunity to properly mourn his family. It’s been survival since three days after his family was taken from him,” said Stacy Uliana, one of Camm’s defense lawyers.

“He just has to start doing what a person could normally do and start mourning them, and then he can start worrying about himself.”

Asked if Camm would return to Floyd County or move out of state, his uncle Sam Lockhart said that he knew, but he didn’t care to share that information with the media.

“I can’t tell you anything about that,” Lockhart said, “Our plan is to get him where he’s acclimated back into society.”